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Controversial license-plate scanners to go up in Cleveland, 18 suburbs

Updated November 15, 2017 at 7:37 AM;Posted November 14, 2017 at 10:23 AM

A license plate reading camera on the back of a Connecticut State Police cruiser in Hartford, Conn. in 2016. Automated license plate reader cameras are expected to be mounted at intersections in Cuyahoga County by summer 2018.(Dave Collins, Associated Press)

In addition, the independent police department serving Cleveland's University Circle neighborhood also is expected to install the cameras.

Legislation to spend $870,338 to buy the cameras from Selex, ES will be introduced Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Council.

The automated license plate readers are part of a countywide information-sharing system that has been developed this year. The system will for the first time allow each of the county's law enforcement agencies to seamlessly share investigative data.

Cameras will take photos that will be sent to a searchable database, which could help investigators quickly locate cars linked to crimes, officials said.

However, concerns have been raised by the American Civil Liberties Union about the ability to collect and share data on all drivers. Several states, but not Ohio, have set limits on license plate reader use.

In Cuyahoga County, two cameras will be installed in two directions at one intersection in each community. One mobile camera trailer also will be available to be placed at intersections, according to information provided to council by the county's Department of Public Safety and Justice Services.

Participating cities will not be required to post signs notifying drivers of the location of cameras because they are similar to police security cameras and there is no enforcement action for simply passing through the intersection, said Fairview Park Police Chief Erich Upperman.

Each community identified an intersection and cameras should be up by June 30, 2018. Cleveland's will be at Carnegie Avenue and Ontario Street and Fairview Park's will be at Lorain and Story roads, Upperman said.

The Cuyahoga County project is funded by $120,338 from the county's general fund and $750,000 from Federal Emergency Management Agency Urban Area Security Initiative Grant funds. The contract, which runs through June 30, 2021, will be referred to a council committee.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol and police departments throughout Cuyahoga County have used automated license plate readers mounted on police cars for several years.

The cameras automatically take photos of license plates at about one photo per second at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. They commonly use infared lighting to allow pictures to be taken day or night.

Automatic license plate readers are a special form of optical-character recognition. Algorithms are employed to transform the pixels of the digital image into the text of the number plate, according to information from Selex.

The license letters and numbers and then compared to law enforcement databases of registered vehicles known to be, or suspected of being, involved with crimes or infractions, the company said.

If a photographed license plate matches an entry on a database, the license plate reader system will alert the command center that a suspect vehicle is in the immediate area.

The ACLU opposes license plate reader technology, saying it is an abuse of privacy and civil liberties.

"The information captured by the readers -- including the license plate number and the date, time, and location of every scan -- is being collected and sometimes pooled into regional sharing systems," the organization wrote. "As a result, enormous databases of innocent motorists' location information are growing rapidly. This information is often retained for years, or even indefinitely, with few or no restrictions to protect privacy rights."

The ACLU calls for legislation and law enforcement agency policies adhering to strict privacy principles.

"The data collected can enhance law enforcement's ability to investigate and enforce the law, but also raise concerns that the information collected may be inaccurate, placed into databases and shared without restrictions on use, retained longer than necessary, and used or abused in ways that could infringe on individuals' privacy," the conference of state legislatures said.

Specifies that automated license plate recognition be used only to investigate circumstances in which law enforcementagents reasonably believe that plate data is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Limits the amount of time that captured plate data can be retained.

Restricts access to license plate recognition databases and requires that agencies log access to the database.

Requires annual reporting of license plate recognition use and practices.